A/N – My first Bleach fanfic. Just an exploratory oneshot. I've changed Byakuya's past, just a little, to make the conflict with the elders more dramatic.
Disclaimer – I don't own Bleach, any of the canon characters, settings or situations. Don't sue.
Foreword
The heat was stifling in the small, enclosed council room, the silence even more so. The elders of the Kuchiki clan knelt stiffly, clad in full regalia, centuries of pride and determination stone-cold in their collective disapproval. Across from them sat the current lord, just as expressionless, his will set firmly and absolutely against theirs.
Nevertheless, the Kuchiki elders were determined that this time they would succeed in overruling their lord. They had bowed to his will in consenting to his disastrous marriage, and had watched helplessly as the woman from Rukongai wasted away, leaving nothing but echoing silence and smothering guilt.
"You must understand, Byakuya-sama," the eldest of them began, drawing on the vast wisdom of his long existence, "the gods themselves have decreed the order of the world. There are rules to our existence: Seireitei and Rukongai were never meant to join."
Bravely, he met and matched Byakuya's flat black stare. Even as the air thickened and grew heavy, as Byakuya's reiatsu flared, he refused to back down. The elders were no cowards; they were Kuchiki, and pride, dignity and honour ran through their very veins.
"Next you will tell me," Byakuya said softly, "that my marriage was thus doomed from the very beginning, and that I should put out of my mind and think it well finished."
The elders made soft exclamations of dismay and denial. The Eldest shook his head. "The Kuchiki are the historians of Soul Society," he replied. "We are the keepers of the laws and traditions; we uphold the ancient standards even as the world around us changes and becomes unrecognisable. That is our honour and our duty; that is our very purpose."
"So you have told me, old man, time and time again." Byakuya flicked his hand, dismissing the sermon. "And it is all very well to talk so, immured in your archives."
"It is not a matter for history and dusty scrolls," the Eldest insisted, his eyes glittering. "If we do not uphold the law, then who will? You knew this when you took leadership of the clan. If you do not obey the laws, Kuchiki Byakuya, who will?"
Once more their eyes met. Taut, thunderous silence descended on the room, invisible currents and lines of force roiling and swirling around them. There was more at issue here than Byakuya's desire to adopt his dead wife's sister, and they all knew it. Byakuya had come to power at a young age, after wresting control from his regents; the most spiritually powerful scion of the clan in generations, he had developed that strength to alarming levels, focusing on the power of his Shinigami rank rather than on the proper Kuchiki concerns of archiving and history. He had married a woman from the worst slums of Rukongai, refusing absolutely to heed the concerns and objections of his clan, shattering one of the most inviolable laws of Seireitei –
He was an irresistible force of change, in the heart of the single-most conservative enclave in Soul Society.
"Old man," Byakuya murmured, "you have lost sight of reality."
"No." The Eldest drew a deep breath. Behind him, he could feel the other elders' strength and support, feel also the weight and influence of generations of Kuchiki ancestors. "In your great power, you have lost sight of your true rank. We stood by and watched your marriage; we will not stand by and watch you bring this girl under your roof as well."
Byakuya's reiatsu rose to crushing heights, swelling and crashing against them all, the full force of his incredible power. "And how will you stop me?" he asked, deadly quiet. The carved screens and wooden rafters of the house began to shake.
"…will you kill us all?" the Eldest dared. "Captain."
Seconds ticked by as the pressure held, Byakuya's narrowed eyes ice-cold. But whatever else he was, he was no murderer; he maintained the force of his reiatsu for moments longer, and then the pressure abated, leaving them gasping and crying for breath, old men all, no match for a Captain of the Gotei 13.
"I swore a deathbed oath, on my honour as a Kuchiki," Byakuya said. "And that, too, is sacred. I mean to fulfil it, no matter the cost."
One of the elders cleared his throat. "In that, Byakuya-sama is correct, Eldest," he said hoarsely. "To renege on an oath sworn to the dying would be unforgivable."
There was a general murmur of assent – he had lost them, the Eldest realised. The sheer strength of Byakuya's reiatsu had melted their resistance.
"Perhaps," another began cautiously, "we might find a way to satisfy the conflicting demands of honour, Byakuya-sama?"
Kuchiki Byakuya, 28th head of the ancient clan, captain of the 6th division of the Gotei 13, bowed his head. "What do you suggest, then, honoured elders?" he asked. "I humbly submit to your wisdom."
And so it was that the girl Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki clan, and Kuchiki Byakuya vowed to never again break the laws and traditions of Soul Society. The elders, forced to be content with what they had won, made no secret of their disapproval of their lord's actions, and Byakuya, once he gained what he desired, retreated into apathy and indifference.
Until the day that Rukia failed to return from a routine mission to the world of the living. And everything changed.